Cricket: Ben Stokes
Part of the trouble with modern sport, apart from the fact that there is far too much of it, is that the stars are all known from about the age of two (and getting younger).
It will not do to be sniffy about this because it was a fair bet from a long way out that Denis Compton was going to be big. But academies, programmes and scholarships have made the left-field pick extinct.
Before his formidable innings of 73 in Nagpur a fortnight ago the choice would have been Joe Root. To choose him now would be almost cheating.
Ben Stokes, of Durham, it is then. Stokes is still only 21 but looked a little special at 18 (and probably at two) when he scored a rumbustious 161 at Canterbury. His batting has flair. He can bowl a reasonably nippy brand of right-arm seam and the all-rounder that England are looking for may reside in his talent.
As part of the Performance Programme Squad in India, Stokes has just acquitted himself well in all three forms of the game. A sparky chap, by all accounts, injury in 2011 impeded progress but a good start in 2013 at Chester-le-Street may compensate more quickly than generally presumed.
